“... it.’ This catches very well the ambience. A young artist might well thrive in that scene. Fuller may be right to discover in himself, all those years ago, something of the tristesse of his present; and perhaps blame that early milieu for a reluctance to take chances, whether in business or in literature, which has ‘prevented great achievements’. About ...”

“... than a father who is a terror? At the end the editor appends her guidelines on how the faithful may detect racism and sexism: they must beware of happy Black Sambos, of whites taking the lead, shun the norm of white middle-class suburbia, suspect the black family where the mother is dominant, eliminate books where the boys perform brave deeds, watch for ...”

“... imprints were founded or came to prominence during the slump. Whatever difficulties booksellers may now be having in holding a high level of stock, and whatever constraints publishers, particularly independent publishers, are under in finding the cash to invest in new editions and fund work in progress – i.e. commission authors to write books – there is ...”

“... for the ‘Oath of the Horatii’ suggests, as Dr Brookner points out, that Poussin’s influence may have counted for more than that of Rousseau. Since she insists that David was no great reader, it is perhaps unwise to probe too deeply into what he could have learned from Diderot or Rousseau. Diderot’s ‘Peindre comme on parlait à Sparte’ ...”

“... ghost stories are aware that they are being addressed by a man of much recondite learning, but it may not be apparent that the author is treating them to the recreations of one of the most learned men European scholarship has ever known. Even modern practitioners in one of James’s specialities will only be vaguely aware of his eminence in others, and an ...”

“... affection from crime-readers but not quite the esteem that Mesdames Rendall and James reap, it may be because his solutions are sometimes less than convincing. We don’t always get the feeling that in his beginning was his end. The solution to Plaster Sinners does not seem inevitable, and is not particularly surprising. Added to that, the mystery would ...”

“... in Goethe the fulfilment of the prophecy. But the picture is not quite so clear and simple as this may suggest. If Reed is right to associate Classicism with ‘ideas of literary status and authority’, ‘ages of cohesion and stability’, ‘cultural community, shared beliefs, social integration’, and, with reference to T.S. Eliot’s essay on the ...”

“... function as well: of preserving social calm among the poor and the powerless. The Republicans may need their Rapid Intervention Forces in Michigan as well as in Central America. Thurow’s analysis is essentially political rather than economic. His concluding suggestion is that America’s ‘problems arise because, in a very real sense, we do not have ...”

“... do. She has always known that he could be obtuse, naive, silly: she begins to realise that there may not be much to compensate for this. She rehearses having things out, sober explanations of her resentment. When she wakes him one night she is dismissed with the words: ‘Surely that’s enough kisses for one night.’ Blundering affection, sexual ...”

“... Wrong Miliband Brother, though Blair’s lucrative contracts with oil-exporting Gulf autocracies may also have moved him). For the resurgent if never entirely cogent ‘Blue Labour’ tendency, the answer is to embrace the rightward social shift while making nebulous gestures towards leftish economic nationalism. One sad indicator of the ideological shift is ...”

“... troops. There has been no talk of pulling them out, either from HTS or the US. What comes next may be couched by international observers in the aseptic language of ‘transition’, but is there a state left to take over? Julani may not be able to control the forces that joined his push from the south, let alone the ...”

“... Romain Bertrand, one of the contributors, notes that the 17th-century diplomat Thomas Roe may have had a grandiose sense of his mission at the Mughal court, but Emperor Jahangir didn’t bother to note Roe’s visit in his memoirs. He did, however, discuss in detail his relations with Shah Abbas of Persia. This isn’t the way the British have seen ...”

“... up on a plate like John the Baptist’s.A portrait of Katherine’s nephew Richard Sackville may have been intended to mark the lavish festivities, in February 1613, for the marriage of James I’s daughter Princess Elizabeth to Frederick V, the Elector Palatine. Richard – a notorious spendthrift – was one of a handful of courtiers who, according to ...”

“... their idea of what the war was like from Robert Graves, Erich Maria Remarque or Vera Brittain may be surprised, and even slightly shocked, by what they find in these pages. There is no bitterness towards those held responsible for the war, no sense of betrayal by the older generation, no shattering of dearly held illusions, no dwelling on the horrors of ...”

“... of Law. Seen in that light, the role of the judges takes on a rather different complexion. They may not be politically accountable in the sense that they can be thrown out of office if they make themselves unpopular enough with the electorate. But they are accountable to the law itself: indeed their single function is to apply that law, regardless of ...”